Describe the experience of getting your first piece of power.

[Mox Hoarder]

Back in 5th grade, I played magic with a buddy of mine, and I bought a mox emerald in my local card store for $100. It was a lot of money back then, especially for white-border, but I never regretted that decision. Ahh.. the good old days. 

[The Atog Lord]

"This card is terrible! My buddy gets a Shivan Dragon, and all I get is this? Three mana. That's terrible! And any color? I only play Green anyways. I could just play with some Forests, and I have plenty of those. But, maybe I can trade this Black Lotus card for something better. Scry says that it's worth $32."

[Mox Hoarder]

Haha! That's classic. Do you still have that original lotus?

[Grand Inquisitor]

http://www.type-one.net/rep?f=030215gin.txt

after months of testing and tweaking emeral alice (ph34r the phids),
it goes all the way and i get another ancestral recall

This is the first piece that I won, I ebayed the ancestral when I started playing because I had the dough and drawing three cards has been (for four great years) the best way to win in T1.

[The Atog Lord]

No, that Lotus became a Force of Nature, a Sorceress Queen, and a Time Vault. I had visions of casting Animate Artifact on my Time Vault, and taking infinite turns with Instill Energy. I was 12 at the time. And now you know why I've been so firm in saying that new players, at first reading, would believe Time Vault works with Twiddle: I was that new player!

[pyr0ma5ta]

I began playing in Alpha and had 3 full sets of Alpha power before I had to sell them for lunch money because my family wasn't doing too well (dad lost his job, etc).  $5 for each piece of power.  If I still had them, I would be able to trade them for a car now.

I have another memory of being at the local card shop in 7th grade, with $200 in my pocket that I had meticulously saved from various odd jobs.  There was a Signed, Beta, absolutely mint Black Lotus in the display case for $199, and I begged my mom to let me spend my money and have her spot me the tax.  She insisted that I was full of crap and put my money in the bank instead.  To date, I've earned something like $2 interest on that money, and I get angry every time I think about this story.

In college I saved up money from work to buy power, and now my set of beat to hell, Unl power is one of the worldly possesions I am most proud of.

[Mox Hoarder]

That's cool, I saw elsewhere on this forum that you're now in boston? Where'd you go to school? One of my favorite things to do after getting a WB piece of power is upgrading it to beta beta or played alpha.

[PhilipJFry]

A couple of months ago, after weeks of consistent eBay searching, I saw a Mox Ruby with a BIN for $125.  I thought, naw that can;t be right.  but I clicked.  It looked Kosher.  But I thought, hmm...still, something's fishy.  But I looked closer.  Nothing fishy.  Good scans, cards checked out, decent feedback, no negatives, credit card payment would theorhetically cover my rear, so I clicked to buy it up.  3 Days later, Priority mail package comes, I rip it open to find...

A Mox Ruby.   

Not even in horrible shape.  Matches in every way my other unlimited cards.  I owned my first P9 card. 

I started back in the day in 94, just late enough to miss Alpha-Dark but to get on the Revised and Fallen Empires wagon.  Of course, I was penniless, so I had very few Revised cards.  To get a Mox/Lotus was unthinkable.  After all, those were in Scrye for $50!

Suffice it to say, it made my week to get that Ruby.  I still have not so much money, and so paying mucho dollars for a pieece of cardboard will be hard.  Still, I decided that unless I see another steal of a deal, I am saving up for a Lotus next.  I want the Ruby thrill, only magnified.

[ReAnimator]

Not my first piece of power but definitely my most memorable was getting my time twister.

A friend of mine had a revised force of nature, we all thought it was pretty bad ass, it just looked cool. I told him i wanted it one day and he was really hungry and had no money, he said he would give me the force for lunch at McDonalds, seemed like a good deal to me and I put the card in my binder. Later that day i was trading with a guy at our local store, we did a pretty big trade of about 15 rares for 15 rares. He really wanted my force and i wanted his timetwister. We lined up the trade and every card was worth the same across the board with the force squaring off against the twister at the end. I knew the twister was worth a lot, even though it was beat, but the guy thought he was getting an awesome deal and so did i so we did it.

So thats how i traded two cheese burgers for an unlimited timetwister. I still have it, and i even got it autographed last year.

My most recent power trade was pretty funny, I traded for a mox sapphire in 30 seconds. 30 Seconds!

Here is how it went down:
Goobafish: Do you want a signed Sapphire?
ReAnimator: Sure for what?
Goobafish: An unsigned one.
ReAnimator: Sure
< We both check condition, we are both happy >
Shake hands.

Thanks Gooba!

[zeus-online]

Not really my first piece of power, but a couple of years ago i had like 2 moxen and 1 ancestral....so i was playing against a friend (I was playing 3CC, he was playing Slaver), and i lost a game because my lotus petal was not a mox....It annoyed me, really really annoyed me, so two days later i bought two NM moxen - Emerald and pearl.

My first one was just a beat up mox jet i think..Not really sure, got most of them in about 6 months while doing some shitty job that payed well!

/Zeus

[Klep]

A friend of mine and a friend of his were going in on a collection.  The collection contained an Ancestral and a set of Drains (among other stuff) on which I called dibs.  They wanted $225 for the Ancestral and $65 each for the Drains.  I didn't have my checkbook with me, and my bank only let me take out $200 per day.  We ended up hanging out at the local game store that evening until after midnight (it was a Friday) so I could get the rest of the money.  I don't even play with them right now, but I'm never letting them go.  All 5 cards were signed the following year when I went to Origins.

[Methuselahn]

I don't know about my very first piece of power, but I relish how I got my lotus after coming back from hiatus back in 2000.  The MMORPG, Ultima Online was just nerfed, so I sold all my in-game money and belongings on ebay and took all the money to buy the lotus, which was about 250 bucks.  Best deal ever.

[Anusien]

Top 8ing at Roanoke very recently and winning an Emerald.  Winning power is a great feeling; it felt like it validated my work in a lot of ways.

[Korhil]

First power I got was 2 moxen at the same time - Beta Pearl, & UL Ruby for US$220.

One of the local card players had been overseas on the back of a big inheritance, he returned with the mentioned two moxen plus UL Lotus & Ancestral.
He'd always been on of those people that would end up short on cash, and sell of cards cheap to pay the weeks rent. So, when I saw he had the power, I told him when he comes to sell it, find me first, and I'd beat any other local offer (Which is true, I would have).

Of course, he flicked it off to some other people one week without telling me. The Lotus and Recall went to a collector that seems to think they are worth millions and just keeps them (He doesn't play the game at all). That annoys me because there's such a low amount of power in the country as is, and he's taking some of it out of circulation.

The Ruby & Pearl ended up with one of his friends however, who is also the kind of person that sells cards when he needs to pay rent. So I gave him the same story. One day he was up at the local card store (which is run by one of my good friends - CJ) wanting to sell it off (Again, I wasn't being told). CJ knew I was chasing it, so he rang me at work and said that the power was going to be sold, and that he wanted NZ$300 for it. I took an early lunch break and gave the man his money

Since then I've picked up all the rest, and made progress on the 2nd set of power (finishing my beta).
There are nowhere near enough tourneys to make owning power worth it in this country (Let alone having 2 sets), but it's pretty cool being one of a handful that have full sets. All the kids getting in to the game seem to know who I am fairly quickly tho.

Maybe I'll sell the UL set when I want more $$$ to buy a house or something, can't see me flicking the Beta at any point tho.

---Korhil

[Zherbus]

I've won all the power I've owned past and present, except for both of the Lotus's I owned and the Time Walk's I owned. I won my first Jet and Library a long time ago in a Type 1.5 tournament. It sat around for a long time (3-4 years) until there was actually some Vintage to play.

[vroman]

first power I owned was pearl I bought for $200. best deal I ever got was folded-in-half ancestral recall for $130. at one time I owned 15 pieces and two sets each of workshops, bazaars and drains

[Polynomial P]

I bought my first two pieces of power, a time walk and an ancestral recall. I still remember going into the store and dropping like 500 bucks for the pair. After closely inspecting them, I took them into my car and held them in my hand the entire trip home (in a hard case of course). I must have just stared at them for what seemed like an hour before slowly sleeving them into my deck. Then I goldfished the deck, throwing back any hand that didnt have at least one of them in it. Since then I've bought 1 more piece of power and won the rest of the power 8. I still have the full set and dont plan on ever getting rid of them.

[Liek]

The first piece of power I obtained was from winning one of RIW's tournaments (for an unl. Time Walk) in either September or October of 2005. I was playing UW Aether Vial Fish (predates http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=14155). In the finals I played against Josh Franklin, in the third game I mulliganed to 5 into this hand:

Chalice of the Void, Aether Vial, Mishra's Factory, Tundra, Standstill

His opening hand had the capability to Tendrils me for 20 in turn one. Good thing I went first.

Since then, I've never purchased a piece of power outside of a tournament prize split.

[Yare]

I wrote a tournament report on it a long time ago, here: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=19600.0.  This event was in Durham, NC.

Here's the relevant text at the end:

Rd. 6 - Jared, running Belcher

I had seen this guy annihilate some people earlier today so I knew that I would need some effective, quick answers to win (see: Null Rod, Force of Will).

Game 1: He wins the die roll and chooses to DRAW.  I was surprised by this, as I thought that Belcher would rather have the extra turn than another card, particularly against an opponent packing Null Rod.  In my opening hand I get: Mox Sapphire, Null Rod, Wasteland, Wasteland, Fetchland, Lavamancer, and something else.  Turn one I go Mox, Wasteland, Null Rod.  That was pretty much devastating for him.  He plays his Chinese Land Grant, fetching Tropical Island and casts Tinder Wall, along with a bunch of useless jewelry.  I waste his Tropical Island, cast Lavamancer, and then try to Curiosity my Lavamancer using the mana from my Sapphire until he points out that I can't do that.  I apologize and pass the turn.  He Land Grants again and gets his Bayou.  He plays Vampiric Tutor (I think) and passes the turn.  I waste his Bayou and after discarding 4 cards, he scoops.

Sideboarding (not sure about this):

-2 Fire/Ice
+1 Energy Flux
+1 Rack and Ruin

Game 2: "Against his better judgment" he chooses to let me play again.  I get an opening hand similar to the one last game and am very pleased (without the Sapphire).  I play Flooded Strand and pass the turn.  He draws, plays Lion's Eye Diamond, Mox Jet, and plays Land Grant, showing me Mystical Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Yawgmoth's Will, and Land Grant.  I gawk at his hand and say ok.  He drops Tropical Island.  He does some tutoring and such.  I play Null Rod next turn.  He Mystical Tutors during his upkeep for Oxidize and Oxidizes the Null Rod.  He then proceeds to Land Grant again, getting his Bayou.  I try to fight him, but I can't do it, as he somehow gets two Tinder Walls down and combos out.  His god draw out god drew my god draw.

Sideboarding:

Same as above

Game 3 - I choose to play.  This time I keep a hand that doesn't involve Null Rod.  I play Lavamancer first turn.  He Land Grants and shows me TWO Oxidizes.  I eye the two Force of Wills, two Wastelands, Standstill, and Curiosity in my hand and say he can have his Land Grant.  I don't remember what he does from here.  I decide to Wasteland a land instead of playing Null Rod.  He does something else I can’t remember (probably another Land Grant) and then I resolve Null Rod.  I believe he held back on playing his Bayou (not sure) until the last moment.  At this point I have three Force of Wills in addition to Standstill and Curiosity.  I opt to just keep Standstill in my hand rather than playing it, because I figure that the best benefit I could get from it would be getting two blue cards, which wouldn't really do all that much for me.  In any case, he tries to Oxidize Null Rod, which I Force.  He scoops and I somehow overcome Belcher.

5-1


So, at this point I would have to beat the winner of the winner's bracket twice in order win the Mox.  Additionally, if I lost, I got nothing (since there weren't enough people to fund second and third place prizes).  I didn't know what my opponent was running, but I know that I saw him earlier resolve Pernicious Deed, so I thought he might be running B/G Nether Void.  This turned out later to be false, in that he was running Masknaught (which, considering it later, I had seen earlier).  Off hand, I asked him if he would consider splitting.  After much negotiation, we come to a mutual deal in which I gave him some cards and cash and I walk away with the near mint Unlimited Mox Emerald.

And with that, I got my first piece of power.  I must say that it was a big deal for me, having played since Ice Age.  I remember the first time I saw magic cards and couldn't help but want to play.  Of course, that was back in the days when we broke our casual format with Illusionary Wall (until we realized it couldn't attack, heh).

Yep, I was on the play all three games.  Ever since, I have always asked "play or draw?" every game, no matter what.

[LotusHead]

In '94, maybe '95, I aquired a Mox Sapphire, another Mox Sapphire (because I REALLY wanted a TimeTwister to combo with my Regrowth, Dark Heart of the Woods and Gea's Touch, and a Mox Sapphire is the kind of trade bait items that would get people to part with the 4th most brokenness peice of power (after Time Walk, Lotus, and Ancestral, in almost that order), a Mox Jet, a Mox Ruby and a Black Lotus.

The Sapphire I aquired from a friend who had sinced stopped playing (he's a computer gamer) and hooked him up with about $100 in cards for a card that was worth say, 30, at the time.

The 2nd Sapphire I traded for cost me about 20 awesome cards (think Tawno's Coffin, Nichol Bolas, Unlimited Icy Manipulator, Wrath of God, etc), and I traded it 2 months later to a shop for a TimeTwister (I had to throw $5 in to make the deal stick.  Both were worth 50 by this point.

At some point, I saw a Mox Jet for sale in a shop in Napa.  It was for $20.  They were worth still 30 at this time.  I had $20, so I bought the mox (which was the most I have spent on a card until 2004 when I got 4 Drains, 4 Seas and 10-20 crap cards for $100 now, and $100 later).

My first Lotus I traded for was done for 3 Shivan Dragons, 1 ROck of Kher Ridges, 1 Fork, 1 Berzerk, 1 Force of Nature, 1 Aspect of Wolf, and a few other similar cards.  Loti were worth 40-50 then. I did it, and I didn't care how much it hurt.  There will be more Shivan Dragons (Then the best creature out there), but Black Lotus, Mountain, Channel, Fireball is forever! Oh, and I had to borrow 2 Shivan's to make the deal go through.

There were other power trades, more Loti, etc, and I traded for a Pearl and Lotus to my bro Jason.  When he grew up (had kids, bills, etc), he gave me all his cards, knowing that if he ever wanted to play, he could play with my cards.

So that's how I traded for Power 7 (5 Moxen, Lotus, Twister).

I never imagined that any of these cards would be worth more than say, 100 each max.  I also never imagined that Wizards of the Coast would keep churning out top notch stuff to keep me interested, and I SURE as hell never thought that "Proxies" were the reason Power got so expensive in the last few years, until I got into a proxy environment.

Epilogue:

I traded an Obelisk of Undoing from Antiquities for an Argivian Archeologiest AND a Library of Alexandria (since Time Elemental had be printed in Legends, I could finally trade the Obelisk).

I had no idea of Library's power.  It was just a land from Arabian Knights that wasn't a Desert.  My first hand that had Library in it was Library, Sol Ring, 6 other cards (everyone drew on the play back in the day). Wow! That's Power!

[defector]

My first piece of power was a Mox Jet that I paid 179 for on eBay. I have gradually added since then and now I am 7 of 9. Its a road and I certainly missed the golden era of cheapness, but such is life. what i have I'll never let go of and what is left i am obsessed to acquire. I hate this game:)
defector

[goobafish]

Here is how it went down:
Goobafish: Do you want a signed Sapphire?
ReAnimator: Sure for what?
Goobafish: An unsigned one.
ReAnimator: Sure
< We both check condition, we are both happy >
Shake hands.

Thanks Gooba!

Fastest trade ever. My first piece of power was a Timetwiser. Here is how it went down: I traded someone on MOTL for a Library that had been through the washing machine, I traded a Kitsune Mystic and a Shortfang for it. I then traded that library and 2 duals for a twister. That piece didn't feel good because twister sucks. My most proud piece was my lotus. I have traded, and not bought, all of my power or won it. I am proud of that.

[ErkBek]

My first piece of power was a BETA Lotus that I bought for $500 on cardshark.com about 3 and a half years ago. It was heavily played, but at the time it was still worth around $750 to $800. I used to always look for power on that site just wishing that someone would list the power cheap so I could justify spending that much money on a piece of cardboard. After months of shopping on eBay and cardshark, I came across a steal and jumped on it.

I was one of those kids that worked all the time in High School and while at my Community College. I wasn't sure actually what I was saving money for, I guess I liked my job and always felt good about putting money in my savings. After I bought the Lotus, I ended up needing my job to buy cards. I broke down and bought almost a full set of power over the course of a few months.

At one point when I was winning a lot of tournaments and had a business on eBay in full swing I had 17 pieces of power and about 40 Force of Wills. I was out of control. I never once have owned a Timetwister, I've just borrowed them from people my entire life.

[jcb193]

Back in the days of Revised and Legends we had a nearby store that wanted to keep 4 copies of every card at all times.  We would walk in with our collections, they offered 50% value on anything they didn't have 4 of.

I handed over a bunch of uncommons and misc rares (including about 12 chaoslace and purelaces, and nothing more impressive than a berserk or Icy).  The funny thing is that a lot of $1-4 cards add up real fast. 

I walked out with a NM Beta Mox Pearl and a Mox Sapphire (which even then weren't that HUGE of a deal).  I was kind of pissed because all they had was a Beta Pearl and not a regular ("I could have gotten $20 more of stuff if they had an unlimited one!"- i remember saying).

The store is no longer in business.....